Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Board Member, University Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC)
Dr. Sakamoto received Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, in 2004. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering Synthesis at the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1999; a Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Tokyo in 2001.
He was a postdoc fellow at Center for Aerospace Structures, Universiti of Colorado (2005); at Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (2006); and at Space Structures Systems Laboratory, Nihon University, Japan (2007). He joined as a faculty member at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, School of Engineering in 2008. Since then, he has been leading research activities there.
His research interest is mainly on the design and analysis of ultralightweight deployable membrane space structures. He took charge of the deployment analysis of the world-first solar sail satellite, IKAROS, launched in 2010. He has been a principal investigator in the development of 3U CubeSat, OrigamiSat-1, for space demonstration of an innovative multifunctional membrane deployment system (launched in 2019). Also, in 2010, he constructed a curriculum for university students to study Sytems Engineering through the development of simulated-satellite, CanSat. He has extended the teaching experience to the HEPTA-Sat training.
Hiraku Sakamoto
Advisor of Aerospace Engineering